Democratic DA candidate fights party to stay on ballot

Updated 8:40 pm, Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Perennial judicial candidate Lloyd Oliver has finally won a race for Democratic nominee for District Attorney. Shot in courtroom in Harris County Criminal Justice Center, 1201 Franklin Street.
Wednesday
5/30/12 (Craig H. Hartley/For the Chronicle) less

Perennial judicial candidate Lloyd Oliver has finally won a race for Democratic nominee for District Attorney. Shot in courtroom in Harris County Criminal Justice Center, 1201 Franklin Street.
Wednesday
5/30/12 ... more

Photo: Craig Hartley

Democratic DA candidate fights party to stay on ballot

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The Harris County Democratic Party worked Wednesday to take district attorney nominee Lloyd Oliver's name off the ballot, deciding to go forward without a candidate in November's general election.

Whether they can actually take the outspoken and controversial lawyer out of the race remains an open question because state law does not appear to allow the party's actions.

"There are ways to remove a candidate, but not the way they're doing it," Oliver said. "And my ultimate remedy is an injunction in the federal court, and I think the federal courts will agree with me."

Oliver, a perennial candidate who has run as both a Republican and a Democratic, usually in judicial elections, said he did not know why the party wants to take him off the ballot.

"I was chosen by 30,000 voters and those two goobers want to remove me," he said. "If they want to fight, I'll guess we'll do that."

"All of the federal court decisions addressing this issue have found that political parties have an intrinsic right, as a private political association protected by the First Amendment, to choose and select their nominees," Dunn said. "I think the law is very clear that political parties can't be forced by the state, either by statute or some state officer's requirement, to have a nominee in a race they don't want to have a nominee in."

Lykos controversy

On Wednesday, Lewis sustained a complaint that Oliver endorsed sitting District Attorney Pat Lykos, a Republican, after the primary, in violation of party rules.

The complaint, filed by Birnberg earlier this month, noted Oliver told the Houston Chronicle the day after the May 29 primary that Lykos was such a good candidate that she "would have gotten my vote."

Oliver contended that his remarks about Lykos occurred after she had been defeated in the primary and, thus, could not be considered an endorsement. He also said that his comments were made in support of some of Lykos' policies and were intended to attract her supporters to his campaign for the November election.

Lewis' decision, however, was ratified hours later by the party's state officials. "The rules have to mean something," Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said. His decision curtails at least one of Oliver's options for appeal, but the controversy seems destined to end up before a judge.

A spokeswoman for the Texas secretary of state said there is no provision in state law for removing a candidate for violating party rules, but party officials said federal law is on their side.

"Anybody who has a grievance can go to the courthouse and try to air out their grievance," Dunn said. "But the law has been clear for at least a century that the party gets to determine whether it wants to have a nominee and who that nominee ought to be."

'Dumb luck'

Oliver has been a controversial candidate because he has been indicted three times, but never convicted. He has said he continues to run in elections because getting his name on the ballot helps his legal practice.

After he beat out former assistant district attorney Zack Fertitta for the nomination in the May primary, he chalked it up to "dumb luck."

Dunn would not speculate on why the party decided to oust Oliver, but the other candidates in the race voiced opinions.

"For what they're trying to do, it makes sense. He's a loose cannon," Fertitta said. "Having run as a Republican a number of times, having an interesting past himself, I guess they're just trying to clean up the ticket, so there's no controversy at the top."

If he remains on the ballot, Oliver will face former District Judge Mike Anderson, the Republican nominee, in November.